Not with a bang but a whimper;

[prologue] Okay, so one of the reasons that I haven't updated this thing in a cow's age is that I have been going through great pains to try to get my damn pictures uploaded on this thing. I know I'm not super tech. savvy, but I used to have a blog that was html-only, and I'm not an idiot--so why is this so difficult to do?! Well, firstly I couldn't upload to EITHER photobucket or flickr for ages because for whatever reason, my computer refused to let the loading take place. So that was frustrating. THEN, once I was finally able to get them up on flickr, since my blog is incompatible with flickr (once again, who knows why) I had to do all the image tagging on my own, which took FOREVER, only to discover that I used the wrong hotlink and the images won't load. D= So, I figured out HOW to do it, but it takes forever, and I'm not even halfway done yet. Screw you, flickr. In the future I refuse to hotlink any more images (unless all of my lovely domain-owning friends are willing to hook me up..... with an FTP program. Hint, hint), I'll just direct people to the account. I would link you to it right now, but my work computer blocks half of the Internet including the flickr page, so...... yeah. 나중에 (later)! [/prologue]

Now, onto the actual contents of this entry. I felt that today merited an update, as it's my last day at school of the semester. (Big shoutout to my principal who gave me Monday off!, even though he will never read this.) Even though I've been telling my classes for weeks now that "This is the last class I will be teaching you," (since some of my students had their last class with me THREE WEEKS ago, oh school scheduling), and I've been packing for America and so on, it didn't really feel real today until I was cleaning out my desk, throwing out my "class cards." They're leftovers from the previous teacher, a collection of every students' name, one card per student, bunched together by classes. She used them for seating charts, while I used them for class "participation." (Somehow, even the most stubborn students will talk when you randomly pull their name out of a stack. Koreans are fond of impartiality.) I took them with me to pretty much every class, and now I've thrown them out and will never use them again.

This certainly isn't the end--I'm only taking a break from the school for about 2.5 months--but it feels like the end in a way, because it's the end of the school year. In the West, the school year starts in September, with a brief sojourn in December, and then has a "real" break in June. In Korea/Asia, the school year starts in March, following a 2 month winter break. In the summer, the students (or at least MY students) get about a week off, very similar to our winter break.

When I come back after 2 months, everything will be different. I'll be at a new desk, moved out of the "discipline" office (I guess I can't complain about that......). My favourite coworker will have been moved to a Gwangju (about 1 hour away) teaching post. My 2nd year students will be my current 1st years, except all of the classes will be reshuffled, so the dynamic will be completely new. And I will have a couple hundred new 1st years that I have yet to meet! It's so hard to believe that this semester is just so over for me. @_@

In review: I don't think I actually taught a full semester here--only 16 or so weeks. I think the Spring will be a longer session for me. There are still a lot of things I need to work on for next semester--tighter lesson planning, STRICTER DISCIPLINE!--but I feel like I've built a fairly good foundation at this school. I understand my students much better now, which will help me in how I teach them. I also understand how the school works better--when I first started teaching, so many things I didn't understand about the school made my lessons run rather choppily. (For example, I didn't know about the magic of instant schedule changes--such as classes being cut from 50 to 30 minutes long, and you have 5 minutes to figure out how that's going to work out.)

Since I'm feeling list-y, let's have a list to round things out:

Things I Have Learned From Teaching at YH:
1. Never, ever underestimate the power of the Group. Don't single out students. Don't look like you're singling out students.
2. When someone goes to the hospital, they're just going to the doctor. Students go to the doctor's office all the time in the middle of the day (alone, even!) because they have no time at night. Speaking of which......
3. (My) students do AT LEAST 3 hours enforce study hall a day, not to mention 2 hours of extra "supplemental" classes. My talented students study 2-3 hours more than that a day. So I should really cut them some slack sometimes. =\
4. Boys caressing each other's faces, hugging, or resting their heads in each other's laps is completely normal, heterosexual behaviour. I guess. X_x
5. Test score >>>> anything else in life, including food, sleep, happiness, and my class! =D
6. All the punks are put in one class!
7. Being forced to speak English for more than one word is the most punishment possible...... unless it's in a competition/game.
8. All of the following activities are "appropriate" during class: Checking oneself out in a mirror, reapplying facecream, checking a friend's hair for..... lice (??), playing Korean poker, studying for another subject (ok I'll admit I did that, too), writing love letters, having a normal volume conversation, and clipping fingernails. I'm sure there's more but I'm forgetting it. =D
9. Heating in hallways/bathrooms is a waste of money. Bah humbug!
10. My class is one of the few destressing classes my students have. Which can be both a very good and very bad thing.......

I'm hoping that this list seems more positive or negative. The fact of the matter is, teaching here is mostly hilarious (if sometimes tedious--once I get to teach a lesson for the 16th time I'm not even thinking anymore), because my students are hilarious and often a lot of fun. They're certainly not all sweetness and angelic, but they really do grow on you. When I was teaching one of my 1st year classes yesterday, I said that the reason I would not be teaching next week (they still have a week of school) was that I'm going to America. The entire class GASPED in horror, because in their minds that just means I'm MOVING back to America. Cue me waving my hands around and going, "Nonononono, for vacation." Then some of the girls actually cut out their dramatic stage crying and gave a sigh of relief. It was pretty amusing, if somewhat unexpected. (Most of my other students were more like, "Oh, last class? Let's watch a movie!" as if I ever show movies in my class.)

On a final note, I think it's a good thing that I'm done with the current 2nd graders, even though I will miss (some of) them. They were taught for 3 semesters by the previous English teacher, and so their memory of her is so much stronger than that of the 1st graders. I always felt so intimidated by living in the previous teacher's shadow (she taught a lot longer than I have--3 years!!) and even if the students didn't know how I felt about this (I'm sure some of them could smell my Newbie-ness from a mile away), I think it effected the nature of our classes. I'll have more of a fresh start next semester.

And I have just been informed by my co-teacher that I have to go now, to move my stuff into a new house in Mokpo (er, more on that later, I guess), so unfortunately I have to end my rambling now. ttyl!

School festival;

Wow, last post seems like a bit of a downer, doesn't it? Let's talk about something happy!

So, it happened two days ago already, but I feel I should really talk about our school festival. At every Korean middle and high school, festivals are a given. It's sort of similar to the school talent shows in America, I guess? One of the cute things about the festival is that pre-talent show part, the students turn their classrooms into little restaurants/stalls/shops and sell things to the other students. There are games/food/etc. Unfortunately, at my school the students didn't have much time to prepare, and because the festival was held in the early afternoon, students from other schools couldn't attend, but it was still a lot of fun. Two of my girl students kidnapped me and tried to get me to join in their student-made "dance club." XD;

Unfortunately, I myself had to perform in the talent show segment (HAHAHAHAnotbychoice), so during the morning I was pretty fixeated on that and couldn't enjoy the morning festivities all that much. Once I had sang and made a fool of myself, though, I was able to enjoy the students' performances. And let me tell you, they put me to shame. Some of my students are seriously very talented! It was really eye-opening for me, as I rarely see my students outside of the context of an English classroom, and we all know that foreign language is not everybody's talent. Many of the students who have been written off as "low-score" or "low-level" were some of the most amazing performers I saw. There were dancers, singers, what have you. One of my advanced girl students rapped! She was so good. Another student did a comedy act where he impersonated teachers--he even did me. >>; I was laughing so much, both in embarrassment and amusement. Some of the third year boys sang "Missing U" by Fly To the Sky and it was pretty dead-on, I was shocked. I saw one of those third year boys today and was surprised at how different he sounded while talking. XD; (I don't teach third years so I know like none of them.) There was a magic show done by boys from another school (so-so), and a dance performance from another school, too (I liked them: they did a complilation of "Nuna nomu yeppo," "Haru Haru," some old American R&B song and "This is the New Shit" by Marilyn Manson. Somehow it worked.)

But I really like OUR school's dance teams, as well. ONE TEAM DID A KOREANIFIED SOLDJA BOY. I almost died when I saw that, seriously. It really is surreal to see some of your most hellish students dancing like professionals on stage, seriously. It was weird enough to see them out of their uniforms. One all-girl dance team featured one of my favourite students (which is strange because she is SO BAD in class, she almost never pays attention), Jin Hwa. NO, J.H. is not the prettiest girl, as any all-too-honest Korean person will tell you. She's short and slightly chubby with a round face. Her facial features are fine but not pretty--at best she's sort of cute. Usually when I see her, she's wearing black owlish glasses and screeching "SHABON!!!!!" at the top of her lungs at me. But when she got up there on stage and started dancing, she looked hot. She didn't dance inappropriately or anything, she was just really good at dancing to point where you can't stop watching her. Honestly, it was really surprising, but a nice surprise. I've often wondered if my students have ever had any time to foster other interests outside of school, and it seems like some of them have.

After the festival, I went out to dinner with the co-workers in my office. Afterwards, I was walking with my co-worker back from the restaurant, and she commented on how seeing all of the students perform so well was a little depressing for you. I can sort of relate--it's sad that these talents are not appreciated at all in school, aside from one day a year (festival day). At my HS school, too, academics were considered the most important, but there was still some appreciation for arts, performance arts, sports, and so on. At a school like Yeong Heung where many students are trying for Seoul universities (the most competitive in the country), there's not much time for anything other than studying.

In the two days since the festival, things have pretty much gone back to normal, and only two of my students have given me crap about my singing abilities thus far. =D I sort of wish another festival was happening soon, but sadly there won't be another one until next year. Maybe if I'm lucky there will be one in the spring! (fingers crossed.)

Note: I do have festival pictures (not terribly good ones, they're so blurry) and a video of the rapper girl, but I can't post them here because I'm not supposed to put up pictures of another w/out their permission. =/ So if you want to see them, email me or something.

Here is Korea!;

And shock horror, I am actually updating this thing. I was starting to get so many complaints that I couldn't ignore it any more. >>; People actually read this thing? I'm a little surprised.

Anyways, onto the topic of this blog. I'll have to make this short because I have to get ready for a teaching conference in Gwangju today (unexpected schedule change no. 1,083 in regards to my job), but first, a quick note about my least favourite English phrase in this country:

"Here is Korea!"

Yes, it's grammatically incorrect, but pretty much everyone says it the same way. I have been told this by students, my fellow teachers, but my homestay........ you get the point. XD It's a nice, "subtle" reminder that since I'm here, I should really get with the program. And by "getting with the program" they mean that I should really be adopting Korean culture.

Koreans are extremely proud of their national culture, maybe in part because they are so isolated and don't really understand outside countries all that well. Some of my "Americanisms" are both confusing and upsetting to Korean people, including any of the following: speaking too loudly (well that's a gimme XD), touching food with my fingers, eating fruit with the skin on,
not eating rice with every meal, taking my shoes off at the wrong time (?), my jaw popping when I eat (there's a lot about eating here isn't there?), and blowing my nose anywhere in the vicinity of another person. Phew. It can be quite a lot to take in--especially the jaw popping thing because that is my orthodentists' fault, not mine--and it can a high-and-mighty American such as myself quite bitter to thing, "So I'm going to have to change just because they said so?"

That's when it's time to take a step back, take a deep breathe, and remind oneself: Of course. Because it's not about me, it's about the Group.

Ah, yes, the importance of the Group in Korea. The Group is just as important as it is for Americans to act individually in our country. Anything you do should be carried out with general consideration for the Group first--if it does not benefit the group (I'm going to stop with the obnoxious capitals now), then it should be ix-nay-ed. I think to a certain degree this can be a really good thing, because Americans are astoundingly selfish people. I never really thought of myself of all that selfish, but in comparison to Koreans I am very, very selfish. I make decisions that are for MY benefit and my benefit only. I might not go along with something if I don't want to do it, just because the group is doing it. (Of course, in my work situations I do whatever they tell me to, even if I think it's not a great idea, but in my social situations I can be more picky.) Koreans show a lot of consideration for each other and their peers, because they are always aware of the group at large, not their own personal desires. In fact, individual wants might not be considered at all in their mind.

So while on the fluffy, happy side of the group mentality, we have extreme caring and kindness for one another, there is of course a flip side. One of the most frustrating things for me, an outsider of the group, is to see when the majority is forced into doing something they don't really want to do. Many group decisions are made by one elder, so in reality, everyone is following one person's wish, not the group's wish. For example, with Korea's drinking culture and work, often many people do not wish to be involved in that at all, but they will still go and stay up all night drinking (or pretending to drink) until they are "released" from their duty. Even if they are bored or tired, they will never leave early. As many Koreans have pointed out to me, Koreans don't know how to say "no."

One example of how the group mentality works (or doesn't work) relates to my school. Now, my school is very religious, so forced drinking outings are pretty much nonexistent. The school does, however, have an official church. Every Sunday, pretty much every teacher in the school goes to the same church for service. They will stay there all day, teaching Sunday School, doing singing practice, extra services, etc. This can go all day from 9 until 4 pm. I'm the only teacher who is excused from this, because I am an American and therefore not part of the group (thank Gooooood in this case). I only know about this church because of one of my co-workers' complaints. Teachers are not allowed to go to another church. Some of the teachers who attend this church are atheist or non-believers, but they still go every week. Even the non-believers will call up the co-workers who are skiving off and get them to come to church. It is not because they want them to come to church, but it is their duty to do this. The group mentality is accompanied by a strong sense of duty and personal responsibility and self-sacrifice. My co-worker who explained the whole church problem to me told me how they hate this so much, hate going to church. But they'll still go, almost every Sunday. My students and other English-speaking Koreans will often confide in me their anger at the system, but they will never make formal complaints. It's really a shame, because I fear that such a system will produce a nation of deeply (and secretly) bitter people.

I'm not sure if the concept of the Group should be abolished in Korea; like I said before, it really has some positive benefits. Individuality in the West has created a sort of cut-throat, "every man for himself" attitude which isn't much better, really. It's just astonishing for me to witness certain aspects of group-think, and even more astonishing to realize even if I understand the concept, I will never be able to embrace it. Just as Koreans can't bear to make a selfish move and act as an individual, I can't bear to abandon my stubborn individuality. I wonder now how Korea and the U.S. ever successfully do business together. It must be a real headache.

And now, I must stop typing and get ready to go. After my conference, I'm heading up to Seoul for the weekend to celebrate an early Thanksgiving at the U.S. Ambassador's house. It should be fun, even if it's 5 days early. I'm actually excited to see a turkey!

Signing off for now~

Photo post, part the first;

So, finally, finally, FINALLY sharing some of my pics. Sorry for the delay, guys. X_x; These are pretty old, so bear with me.......

Chuncheon, Seoul & Moving to Mokpo:


Chucheon's speciality, dakkalbi (딹갈비), pre-cooked. When you order it at a restaurant, this is what they glob on your table. Looks gross, I know (all that......... raw chicken), but just you wait!


Ta da! All mixed together, cooked and ready to eat. You eat it like you would eat normal Korean barbeque, wrapped in lettuce leaves. Oh, I'm drooling just looking at the pic. Dakkalbi is a strange mix of chicken, chili paste, 떡 (tteok), cabbage and a few sweet potatoes. My favourite part is the cabbage, actually: it tastes so yummy after being grilled with chili paste and chicken fat! Yummmmmmm. Unfortunately, dakkalbi sucks everywhere out of Chuncheon, basically, so I don't know if I'll be able to ever have it again. ;_;


The first apple I had in Korea, after being too poor to afford fruit for weeks. ;; It was so delicious that I actually had to commemorate it with a photo. Korean produce is expensive, but very yummy.


One of my favourite snacks in Chuncheon: fresh blended kiwi juice, for less than $1! (Thanks, Korean won exchange rate.) I can't drink juice that isn't made from a whole fruit anymore. D= It's not the same.


Shot of Chuncheon from the school. It was a rainy summer day when I took these pics.


Shot no. 2.


One of the backroads in Chuncheon. Oh, Chuncheon. I'm almost nostalgic for you and your painfully hot summer weather now..........


Kelsyn, Anna and I all making slightly different hand gestures at this hole-in-the-wall restaurant.


Playing this weird hand-numbers guessing game thing......... The loser gets slaps on the wrist from the winner. (Oh, Korea.)


A bunch of us outside the dorm on Grace's bday. See that nametag around my neck? I wore it ALL OF ORIENTATION. (Not by choice, I have to stress.)


A parade! In honor of tomatoes!


The traditional Korean band that was in the parade!


The other band!


Us, confused and in the parade! With the requisite tomatoes.


Our audience, young soldiers in training! The town is a busy training base.


Boys in drag, required at nearly every Korean cultural event.

Okay, goodbye, Chuncheon! Onto the few Seoul pics I have:


This was near the Ambassador's house when we went a-visiting. Seoul is so city-like.


But even so, you'll still see mountains peaking out through the buildings. (Korea is the most mountainous places I've ever been.)


You will also see random traditional parades marching around Seoul.........


This was a changing of the guards ceremony, right in front of one of Seoul's numerous palaces. Also near the Ambassador's house--nice neighbourhood!


Yonsei day! This was the day we all met our principals and co-teachers at Yonsei University. We were all hiding in a back room, getting ready. I might not look it, but I was QUAKING with fear and trepidation. That god that day is over and done with. XD;


Our program coordinators dressed up in Korea's famous "couple tees" to cheer us up and distract everyone from having panic attacks on Yonsei day. I appreciate the effort.

So, after saying bye to everyone (in a bit of a hurry, my principal nearly dragged me out XD;), it was onto....... fair Mokpo!


My first meal in Mokpo: 90% fish. So, so, soooooooo yummy. XD I wish I could have that meal again. ;; Despite living here, I am feeling a distinct lack of raw fish in my life.


The flowers I received from the students on the first night.


Home sweet home! The living part of the apartment.


The kitchen part of the apartment.

I'm afraid that's it for now--I will be back with more later when I finish resizing and uploading and changing from Photobucket to another image uploader! And Girl Sam, there will be DMZ pics but I assure you you will be disappointed. The DMZ guards don't allow for much in the way of picture-taking.

Crawling out the grave of dead blogs;

.......... and once again, without pictures.

So, this thing hasn't been updated in about 100 years since I've been trying to make my new post a SPARKLY KOREA PICTURES! post, except that keeps failing because I can't resize or upload pictures at my work, and that is where I spend the majority of my computer time. Usually I have time to do these things on the weekend, when I am not working, but my weekends have been rather busy as of late (will explain shortly). So, as a result, the blog posts just kept getting pushed further and further back, and the guilt over my lack of updates just kept up building and building. I would post what pictures I already have uploaded, except the site they are on (photobucket.com) is blocked by my work's internet, so........ fail. I know. If only I actually had energy at night. I'll try this week. 파이팅/fighting!. X_x;

So, it's been very close to a month since my last entry, and.......... a lot has happened. This calls for a list.

So what the heck have I been up to?

1. I'm on my seventh week of classes now, so....... teaching for nearly 2 months. Which isn't that much really, but first year teaching moves at an exponential rate--the first week alone is mind blowing and mind numbing on all sorts of levels. But I'm pleased to say that I'm much more adjusted now and have a better (not complete, but better) understanding of how I feel abou teaching: I hate it! Okay, all kidding aside (I do not hate it), while some of my shiny-eyed idealism has been stomped to death but the Realities of Education in Korea, I have to say that I enjoy teaching now more than when I first started. I know my students better (still fail at their 500+ identical-sounding names), I know how to plan better classes for them, I know better coping mechanisms for not dying of exhaustion..... and midterms are just around the corner, which means high-level stress for every teacher except ME. I don't give grades or exams of any kind (anything I marked is ungraded), which 98% of the time means I don't have as much clout as the Korean teachers, but midterms are my time to pity them rather than have them pity me, as my duties become significantly shortened prior to midterms (nothing I teach will ever help on Korean standardized tests, sadly), and during the actual exams I'm not even supposed to show up. So, free vacation for me, yay! October is a good month. November will be worse--midterms will be behind us, but everyone in the whole school will be flipping over the 3rd years' college entrance exams in the middle of the month. Good luck to those kids, seriously. They're all probably trying for Seoul universities (American translation: the Ivies), so they're going to need it.

2. Mid-September, I hiked it all the way over to Jecheon (6 hours away by car......... if the traffic is good. It wasn't good) with my host family to celebrate the Korean equivilant of Thanksgiving: Chuseok/추석. This is a 3-day weekend holiday in Korea, although the actual holiday itself really only takes about one day. 1.5 days if you're a woman, because, given Korean's, er, "traditional" ways, for this great Thanksgiving-esque feast it is expected that the women of the family, and only the women, shall prepare everything. This includes hand-preparing hundreds of steamed glutinous rice dumplings, called songpyeon, gathering enough fresh fruits to feed an elephant, and frying basically every food in sight: lettuce leaves, green onion, spicy green peppers, spam, picked raddishes on sticks, potato pancakes...... the list goes on. My host family's extended family (the women, that is) made enough food for 50; there were about 10 of us in total. But that's because you're feeding more than the living: it's a feast for the ancestors! Chuseok morning starts with a good ol' family alter set up, loaded with all of the different traditional Chuseok foods. No kimchi, or strange garlic-y foods (I say "strange" because the ancestors apparently would consider the taste strange), but rather blander fried foods, cooked fish, Asian pears and apples, traditional sweets......... all foods that I found delicious, btw. Thanksgiving food is good, too, but Chuseok was a nice change. In addition to stuffing myself, I watched lots of bad Korean television, walked around Jecheon, went to Yeongju (famous for its apples, of which was bought 100 or so) and went to a family spa with my host mum's entire extended family. You haven't really done Korea until you've gotten naked with a family you never knew and the grandmother with the hundback puts her hand on your thigh when you're both in the hot bath and says how white your skin is. ........ Yeah. It was a fun trip, though.

3. More weekend trips! The weekend before last I went to Andong to meet with friends and attend the Andong International Mask and Dance Festival. It was awesome, especially the Russian dancers' showcase. Makes me want to go to Russia and don some cassock clothing or something. This weekend I went to the historically-significant city of Gyeongju, which is north of Busan. It's well-known among Koreans for two things: one, being the formal capital of the Shilla Kingdom (which was later supplanted by the Goryeo Kingdom) and two, Gyeongju bread. It's real name is...... hwanambang, or something like that, but everyone called it gyeongjubang. (It's delicious, btw, being 80% red bean. Yuuuuuum.) My trip to Gyeongju was actually the first business trip of my life (the first of many, probably), to attend a conference with my fellow ETA's. We discussed teaching strategies, language level problems and classroom management, as well as social problems such as getting along with our host families. I got some really good teaching advice which I think is going to help me a lot this semester, so I'm grateful for the trip.

4. Extra-curriculars! I do attempt to have a life outside of school....... sometimes I succeed. I renewed my membership at the gym (so expensive T_T), so I'm still going there after school to sweat out some stress. It's a great way to forget about bad classes--nothing distracts better than having a rabid fear of tripping on the treadmill. I also found a free Korean language class that meets once a week, which even gave me a free textbook. Sadly, had to miss the last two classes b/c of weekend travels, but the class is super-informal (aiding mostly Philippino immigrants and foreign brides), so it should be okay. It's good to have the class: with all of my teaching English, it's hard to focus on my own language study. While I've been learning a lot of Korean through the work place and at home, I'm also forgetting a lot of my old vocab. I'd better get back to the self-study, sheesh. I am planning on taking a hardcore language class this winter break, though. Also, I found an excellent Chinese academy in my town that would love to have me......... when I finally am ready to sign up for classes. I'm poor (my organization doesn't adjust our salary for changing exchange rates T_T), so I'm putting off continuing my studies until next month. Here's hoping my Chinese doesn't completely deteriorate in that time.

5. I've run out of things to list. I have also been....... spending too much time in Korean saunas, and cleaning my room a lot. Yeah.

So I guess that's everything. Truthfully, life feels pretty hum-drum right now. I've officially been in Korea long enough for it to feel almost normal. Of course, it will never be 100% normal, because I'll never really fit in and I still forget to bow sometimes, but 3 months after I first got here, this feels a bit like...... home. I think moving abroad when I was so young must have really geared me for making myself at home abroad, as some of my fellow ETA's were saying at the conference that they still don't feel at home in this country. I guess it really all depends on what your definition of "home" is. And mine is: home is where your laptop lies. =D; (Sad but true.)

That's all for now, folks, until I FINALLY am able to access my photobucket account again...... speaking of which, anyone know anything about flickr? Is it a good service?

This is not the photo post spam I promised;

So, I actually have a reason for my lack of updating, and that reason is: I haven't uploaded any pictures yet, and I said my next post would be a picture update, so....... I just kept putting it off. When I last updated, I was on "holiday" from school, but now that school's in full swing I am pretty busy. Maybe not around-the-clock busy, but my school keeps me occupied enough. I'm usually out of the house from 7 am until anywhere between 7:30 pm (at the earliest) and 10:30 pm (at the latest). So do forgive me, people, but I have no pictures to share with you today. = ( I'm actually updating from work, sans camera. I have two morning classes in a minute. But I want to stop pretending that I don't have a blog to update, so instead..... you get words. No pictures but lots of words.

I'd like to make a shout-out now to Ann, who sent me a very lovely email in response to my recent blogging. I'm so sorry I didn't reply to your email, Ann! Anyone who reads this blog can agree that I've been a very bad emailer as of late. >_< She asked a lot of really excellent questions which I think would benefit other people to know, so I'm going to answer them here instead of via email:

1. About my co-teacher. I've mentioned him before, so everyone knows I have one. The title "co-teacher" is a little misleading, as at my school, my co-teacher could be more accurately described as my school liaison. Fulbright came up with the title "co-teacher" and what they do really differs from school to school. At some schools, the foreign teachers are not trusted to handle an entire class on their own, so co-teachers might sit in on the classes, to mantain discipline or to translate English to Korean. Some might even "team teach" with the foreign teachers. At my school, though, my co-teacher already has a very busy schedule (he is a young teacher so he forced to do many of the things the older teachers don't have to do, such as supervise the students' studying until midnight, sleep over in the special student dorms, as well as teach a full 20+ hours a week), so when is he going to have time to check in on me?! Thus, I am alone in all of my classes. I actually prefer it that way--it's a little nerve-wracking to have another teacher watching and judging you. However, even though my co-teacher is not in my classroom, he still has to work for me. It's his job to keep me up to date with my schedule, talk to other teachers for me if I have a problem (or simply cannot communicate with them due to lack of common language), help me set up my phone/bank/etc....... basically do all the stuff I cannot do b/c I'm not fluent in Korean. It is extra work, and he doesn't get paid extra for it. = ( But he's pretty good about it.

2. My school. I teach at a co-ed high school which is ranked the top high school in Mokpo, meaning they get the best test scores. The students are in school longer than any other HS students in Mokpo (while I see many HS kids out at 5 pm, my students can't leave until 10 pm at the earliest. 12 am at the latest). My school is 100% focused on making sure the kids are well-behaved and getting the highest test scores possible. Corporal punishment is allowed and widely practiced here--only 2 young female English teachers (I think) don't hit their students, but they HAVE hit their students in the past. All the other teachers carry 2 feet long sticks/rods/etc. with them to class. I obviously do not and cannot follow this method, and since I have no real effect on the students' test scores, some of them like to blow off some steam in MY class. This makes my job at discipline all the more interesting. =D;;

3. What do I teach? Some schools require the foreign teachers to teach from a book. I do no such thing. I have complete freedom in my teaching--on my first day, I was given my own classroom and told to do whatever necessary. They trust me completely and never check up on me. On the first day, that was a little scary (I mean, I'm hardly an English Teaching Expert), but in the long run such a laissez-faire attitude towards me is great, because I can be creative or do whatever I want to. Everything I teach I plan on my own. I have incorporated ideas/exercises devised by PAST Fulbright teachers at other schools and used them for my own purposes, but my lesson plans are my own. I'm trying to do a different lesson "style" every week so that the class doesn't seem too monotonous; right now I'm trying to find a good balance between "the kids are having fun" and "the kids are learning something." It would be easy to do only games the whole way through, the trick is to make the information/English stick in their brains. My students would LOVE me if I just did 50 minute games and handed out chocolate, but not only would I be broke (chocolate's not cheap), but I would not be doing them any good. This is their chance to get exposure to a native English speaker, they shouldn't waste it.

4. My students. Ann asked me how much English they have, which is a pretty complicated answer. In terms of years of study, my students have been studying anywhere between 6 and 9 years. A couple have "studied abroad" in America, too. That said, some students can still barely string together a full sentence or understand my version of "slow English." But they DO know more than they think--right now I'm working at building up their confidence and trying to give them to ability to tape into their own English resources. Some kids are really very smart, but way too scared or shy to use their English. When they're not in my English class, they have other English classes, which are all taught in Korean and teach only grammar and vocabulary. Some of the English teachers here can barely speak English to me. Yes, really. The students also have all the normal subjects plus electives like P.E., art, singing class....... their day starts at 7:40 am (cleaning time), then study hall from 8 to 8:50 (I sometimes teach during that period, boy do those kids love me THEN -_-), and regular classes 9 am to 4:40 with an hour for lunch. 4:40 - 5 pm is MORE cleaning time, then classes and enforced study hall from 5 pm 'til 10 pm, with another break for dinner. My host brother eats at school every day. The "stupid" kids go home at 10 pm, while the "smart" kids stay for extra studying until midnight. The smartest students LIVE at the school during the week, in a dorm, so their lives don't interfere with their studying. 3rd years, who are prepping for the November university exams, where here over the summer holiday (one week off), studying 9 am 'til 12 am EVERY DAY. ALL DAY. Oh, and did I mention that they have Saturday classes three times a month? Just for a half day, but still. Essentially, my students have hardly any free time. They always look sick, they're always tired, etc. etc. Even so, most of the kids find things to be optimistic about, and I think they probably WILL remember HS fondly.

5. My schedule. I have the easiest schedule probably of all of the teachers, which causes me no little guilt. By contract I am only allowed to teach 20 hours a week. In general, 20 hours a week is a lot to teach, but at my school my teachers teach more like 25 hours a week......... Also, contractually I cannot be forced to teach on Saturday. I teach the first and second graders (10th and 11th graders in the U.S., years 12 and sixth form 1 in the UK), not the third graders (seniors) who are too busy getting ready for the BIG UNIVERSITY EXAM WOO. I teach EVERY class once a week, so 16 classes a week. That means the same lesson 16 times! I might devise different lessons for the 1st and 2nd graders in the future, but their levels are practically the same. Also, I teach the "advanced" student an additional 1 hour in the morning (study hall), so that's 20 hours total. On test days for 1st and 2nd grade, I don't have to come in. I also get midterms/finals periods off. I get holidays, but there are not a lot of those in Korea...... until the winter. I get a REALLY REALLY long winter break, Dec. 22 (by my contract) until March 1st. And I get payed for that time off. Happy days. Take note, people who want to come see me. I'll probably be in Seoul that entire time, so that's the cheapest/easiest/coldest(!) time to come a-visiting.

I think that just about answers everything........ oh, about people wanting to comment: I think you need an account. You MIGHT need a gmail account for that, but last time I checked you didn't. All you need to do is give your email address, a chosen passwork, and correctly read an "encryption code" to confirm that you're not a robot. Pretty simple, but feel free to email me if you have any questions about that.

Now! Before are a bunch of snippets from my personal journal about my first few days teaching. Maybe you guys will find it interesting, maybe you won't. If you can read through it all, you're a stronger person than I am. = )

And since you've read so nicely up 'til this point, have what few pictures I have uploaded:


Me and my adorable co-worker, hanging at a Chinese themed bar last Friday! BTW, before anyone mocks my giant, shiny forehead, apparently it's a.......... good thing in Korea? wtf?! And sel-ca-ing is still hard; holding the camera straight, that is.


Look, my room! The thing hanging upside down is a bouquet of flowers, btw. (From the students.)


One of plans for what my host dad is working on. I took this picture mainly for the sister. =P


Who's hungry...... for some cows' feet? =D

Big picture so it's a link. I went to the Korean food market!

This dam! It was very..... hot? Oh, and beautiful.

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8/24

God I am exhausted. I left the house at 7 am and got back at 8:30 pm. X____x; Today was crazy. I had my first day of school--in which ALL BUT ONE of my classes was cancelled, what the hell, went out for coffee with my adorable 23 year-old female (!!) co-worker (who's already promised a free place to crash in Gwangju City, sweet), walked around for like a half hour with said co-worker, spent an hour with a personal trainer WHO ONLY SPEAKS KOREAN, and then sped-walked home for a half hour 'cos I was SO LATE.

Class: My ONE class (hahah what a ridic day) was quite a handful. My co-worker was like, "Oh, they're loud" and I thought, "Okay, whatever, better than silent!" I just didn't realize that that meant that they like to hold regular-volume conversations over their classmates and teacher! And this isn't like one group people, it's pretty much everyone! I got them to shut up for random periods of time (when it was quiet it was actually quite eerie), but I really was shouting and clapping for most of the class. The weird thing was, it wasn't a bad class--I see a lot of potential for them, if I can get them to follow the rules! The first lesson plan is not really fun (mostly me being like, "Follow my rules, brats! And I have a LOT of rules!", but they did pretty well when I had them do activities together, when is a good sign. So yeah, an exhausting but very eventful 50 minutes. I'm going to die tomorrow when I teach 3 beginner classes back to back at the end of the day. PAIN.

Co-workers: The older teachers certainly don't get me (they're old, male, Korean, and baffled as to why I can say ANYTHING in Korean), but they are really nice. I'll just have to be careful to show them even reverence. I love the girl who's desk is next to mine, she's the one I went out for coffee with. I love my co-teacher, too, but he's........ a guy. Which would be fine, except hanging out one-on-one with a male in Korea is a little dodgy. Also, my "office" (where my desk is) is full of hilarious and nice people, so I'm very happy with that. =D Since my school is Christian and everyone is super-busy, the teachers don't out to "party" very often (if ever), but that's quite fine with me.

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8/25

So, today was my second day of school, but my first really Big Day, in that I normally have morning class, then pre-lunch class with the second years, then English teacher's meeting, then the three afternoon periods is just one big block of first year classes. Intense. But the good thing is that today they canceled morning classes so I could sleep in (A WHOLE HOUR XD) as well as my English teachers' meeting.

Even so, today.......... was exhausting. If yesterday was exhausting then today somehow managed to top that. =D; First I ended up missing my stop on the bus (CURSE YOU, HOST BROTHER! YOU FAILED ME!--funny thing is, I wasn't even mad by the end of the day so I didn't get to yell at him), so I ended up having take a cab from ACROSS TOWN to my school because I wanted to be there early to prepare. My second year class was a bit like pulling teeth, they're so quiet, and then my three first year classes were HYPER HYPER HYPER! They were really fun, though, just a LOOOOT of work. A lot of me getting them to shut up. Apparently I come off to some students as scary, which makes me sort of proud. =D; (I only know this 'cos my host brother who's in one of my classes told me. He's a good spy.) But yeah, definitely altering the lesson plan a bit for tomorrow. X_x;

Then it was 5 pm, and I was informed that the whole English department would be going out to eat at 7 pm, so since I had time I took a quick breather (my legs felt dead, I was hopping and running around and standing for three hours straight), then sped-walked to my gym, worked out a little, showered, sped-walked back, then went out to dinner.

Oh, dinner.

We had been warned about this. School dinners are majorly ceremonial--you can't eat before your elders, you have to drink alcohol, you have to drink the alcohol a certain way (too lazy to explain), etc. etc. I think I did okay. ^^;; We drank soju and green tea mixed together?! The taste was....... whatever. Soju-like. The vice principal was also there--his drink of choice is 7-up and Coke mixed together. I don't even know. But the food was delicious! The first course was a little random and boring--crab, which I fail at eating in Korea, a few potatoes, a few shrimp, dry cooked white fish--but the second course was Mokpo local sashimi. SO GOOD OMG. Koreans eat this type of sashimi Korean-style: you dip in wasabi-soysauce/chili paste, add a bit of garlic (okay, this is Korea: A LOT of garlic), wrap it all in a lettuce/sesame leaf and enjoy. Then we had more raw fish was tasted a bit like I imagine raw chicken to taste but.......... I liked it? And finally 해물탕 (heimultang), which is essentially spicy fish soup: very good.

I thought after dinner we were done, and so did my co-teacher, who was driving me back home, but then he got a phone call and he had to answer it (seriously, I thought he was waiting on a super-important call, 'cos he yelled at me to grab his bag in the backseat and was all, "Hurry hurry!"), but it was just the young English teachers being "Let's noraebang!" And since in Korea, you do whatever The Group is doing, we turned around and went noraebang-ing, which meant we had to do MORE drinking. Except this time there was ridiculous dancing and tambourine-ing involved. I sang Cher's "Believe" and Sean Kingston's "Beautiful Girls" with my female co-teacher (don't........ ask) and as a tribute to my b/f, "Never Gonna Give You Up." Hells yeah!

Left early (10 pm) 'cos I had to go with my co-teacher (thank God), went home, and watched half of "Kill Bill 2" on the telly. Once again, IDEK, but I love Korean television so much. It has so many American movies!

And that was my day. Wow. I wrote way too much. Anyways, it was fun, and I feel like I really bonded with my co-teacher a bit, too. He was whinging at me about his g/f problems, which is certainly pretty personal, so I think that's a good sign. XD;

OMG. I am deliriously exhausted. I have work in not that many hours. SLEEP.

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8/29

In school-related news, I have acquired a nickname from either my teachers, students, or both........... "Hippo." Oh yes, you heard me. Hippopotamus. I was, of course, mildly horrified with the music teacher gleefully told me, 'cos in America, hippo just means fat-ass. XD (Fine, Korea, I can take a hint.) He assured me that it doesn't mean that, and my host mum did explain it a little better to me. "Hippo" (like the animal) is the nickname for these weird jar thingies that Koreans buy to trap humidity in their closets. (To keep the clothes from going all moldy in the overly humid summers.) As a result, "hippos" are little jars full of water. (Host mum showed me HER hippo.) As the music teacher explained, I'm called Hippo 'cos I drink so much water. Guess it's appropriate. XD; I don't actually drink that much water as my school, funny enough........ I do have to drink a bit between back-to-back classes, though; all the talking seriously dries my mouth out. I'm practically spitting by the end of class.

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9/3

I've taught 12 lessons in the last 3 days. 8 more lessons to go for the week..... I'm changing up my lesson plan for the third time this week, 'cos it still doesn't quite work. I.E. with certain classes it's a mess, because........ they pretend not to know English/they have a hard time with it. It's hard not to have overblown expectations--you never really realize just how FAST and fluid your own English is until you're dealing with a stubborn Asian high schooler. Some kids I have to speak at 1/6th my speed. And then rephrase and do a bit of charades. And I get a one-word answer in return. *thunk*

But I know it's worth it. The weird thing is, kids won't say a peep to me but then at the end of the class, shy students will come up to me and speak in FULL SENTENCES and it just makes me want to cry, I'm so happy. Now I'm trying to plot how to do non-graded "speaking tests"--maybe around midterms. And things will be easier when I don't expect so bloody much out of the kids--I wish I could do really inovative lesson plans but that is so not happening at this level of English. Maybe later. X_x; But this does make me see the appeal of teaching upper-level English conversation at a university.

On the plus side, my morning classes are a dream. I preprepared a reading assignment (my own writing, how lame XD) and had them write and not talk at all and it was glooooooorious. So quiet and simple, and the responses I've gotten are AMAZING. I asked them to write about themselves and their schools--will post good quotes later. One student made an unfortunate mix-up with the word "clapping"--Koreans SPELL with "r"s, too, not just say them. Think about it for a second. Now I finally understand why my teachers would give us those stupid in-class writing assignments. It wasn't for OUR benefit, but for the teacher's benefit!--finally, a break from shouting, talking and thinking. Especially thinking. I have so, so, so much respect for lifetime long teachers now. (Except the horrible ones who HATED teaching, like Langone.)

+++

9/6

Gwuangju adventure! Today! I am so tired!

Highlights & random strangeness:

+ Getting to be in a "big" city for the day--I didn't realize how much more compact Mokpo is until I left it =D;;
+ Checking out the Gwangju Biennale, i.e. biannual art festival which showcases some AMAZING contemporary artwork. And some just "meh" contemporary artwork, too. But mostly good. I have pictures, I NEED TO POST SO MANY PICTURES MY GOD. X_X
+ Ran into fellow ETA at the Biennale gallery! It is is a small world indeed. XD We're all going to have a Gwangju meet-up soon, hopefully.
+ Eating 호꺽 (cornmeal and walnut.......... bread? Kinda?) for the first time.
+ Shopping and spending entirely too much money (-) on an entirely too cute often for work. It was totally worth it, I rationalize. I really need new clothes, my coworkers were starting to comment on my wardrobe, or lack thereof.
+ Running into not one, but five prostitutes in one block. With their pimps in tow. (.......)

In short, I walked bloody everywhere, ate waaaaaaaaaaay too much food today, and I now have someone to go see Mamma Mia with. =D Don't judge. My options for movies in Korea are nil.

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9/10

Proof that just how some white people can't tell Asians apart, some Asian people sure as hell can't tell us apart, either:

1) My co-worker said the other day that I look "just like" Nicole Kidman. HAHAHAHA. Well, we are both pale white--we must be twins! She refused to believe me even when I pointed out our MANY physical differences. The weirdest thing is, my Chinese host sister had said the same thing of me like 4 years ago. Seriously guys, how on EARTH do I look like Nicole Kidman?!

2) My students in 1-8 (the girls) were all insisting that I have Lindsay Lohan's face. Um....... thanks, so I look like a cracked out human being? O_o; (Although actually in Korea, most people are not aware of Lohan's most recent escapades. They still play "Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen" and "The Lovebug" on the television here. -_-) And once again, Lilo's face is not like mine, I have much bigger features. We bought have the similarities that come with being of Western European descent, so I guess that's enough for my students.

......... Oh, and did I mention that yesterday an 8 year old boy harassed me and tried to look at my "panties"? (It wasn't even a mildly innocent, hide-under-the-dress sorta act, HE KNEW WHAT HE WAS DOING.) This is why you don't accidentally wear an above-the-knee dress out in Korea--the men and male students will all gawk at your legs all day. T_T; It's creepy. T_____T;;; (The senior male teachers made a point of saying, "You look very stylish today." ONLY THE SENIOR MALE TEACHERS SAID THIS, not the women or younger teachers. CREEPY.)

Thank God I'm done with classes for the day. *passes out*

+++

So, if you finished that all, you get a cookie. The bell just rang for class, so off I go to teach my last class of the day! Wish me luck!

Safely in Jeollanamdo!;

So, some of you may have thought that I've fallen off the face of the Earth lately. I haven't responded to emails, or updated this blog, or even........ been on facebook. Shocking, really. However, for the last week I haven't had internet! It's been, just like every week so far, a crazy, hectic week. But maybe this week was the craziest of all. Let me explain.

Orientation finished up last Thursday. =' ( It all happened so quickly. On Monday we had our Korean language final, on Tuesday we were in all day teaching/cultural workshops (10 - 5 pm T___T with one hour break for lunch), on Wednesday we had our last day of Korean class and MORE cultural workshops and an ETA talent show (which was amazing btw, the other ETA's have some impressive hidden talents!), and on Thursday we "graduated" from Korea University's course, cleaned our dorms, packed our bags, etc. etc.

On Friday, it was off to the Korean city that never sleeps....... Seoul! Everyone was up by 7 am and getting checked out the dorm rooms; once again, hectic. I have to say, while Orientation was fun, I will not miss those dorm rooms one bit. They were SMALLER than my single at Bard, except we had two people sharing the room! As a result, it was impossible for both of us to move around the room at the same time. After check-out, everyone lugged their impossibly heavily luggage down the stairs and then it was onto....... Seoul!

We stayed in Seoul for only four days, but I feel like I had so many random adventures there. My friends and I got cornered by a random drunk ajjusshi on the subway who made my two guy friends read a Korean family registry that was all in Chinese characters (and they can't read Chinese characters) while I laughed; since I'm a girl, the guy left me alone. I saw the changing of the guard outside one of the palaces (pictures, later) when I was walking back from a Kinkos, I met the U.S. Ambassador to S. Korea, who is an amazing man, I ate CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES! for the first time in seven weeks (hoooooooooow I missed those ;_;), I stayed out until 7 am in the University area of Seoul since our dorm locked us out (don't worry parents, Seoul is v. v. safe), I visited one of the palaces, learned to find my way around the city by myself...... all in all, a fantastic time. Seoul provides a lot of different ways to entertain, and for anyone who's thinking of coming to visit me (hint hint), I can't wait to show you around! = )

You might be wondering why my organization took me to Seoul in the first place, aside from having fun. Well, there is a real reason. Following the conclusion of Orientation, it is customary for all of the ETA's to go to Yonsei University (one of the most prestigious universities in Korea, coincidentally), and from there go on to their assigned teaching placements. Monday is reserved for Yonsei Day, when the school principals and our co-teachers come to fetch us. Before they can take us away, of course, they have to sit through multiple hours of being barked at by my amazing program executive (this sweet old Korean lady who I swear is secretly a gangster); my organization wants to make completely sure that we won't be mistreated at our schools. Once all that is done, we our introduced to our principal, who generally knows no English, and our co-teacher, whose job is to know English very well and make sure we are taken care of. Co-teachers are usually the youngest teachers in the school because they are forced to take on the position by their superiors; being a co-teacher is a lot of extra work, so the superiors don't necessarily want to do it. ^^;;

I was so nervous before I met my principal and co-teacher, but it turned out to be fine. My co-teacher's English was very good, and right away he answered a lot of questions for me. His name is Soonchul, so from now on I'll call him that on this blog. I'll call my principal Kyojangnim, which means "principal" in Korean--you're not supposed to address your principal by name, it's rude. Kyojangnim used to be a P.E. teacher, so he's an unusually tall and strong-looking Korean man (not to imply that all Korean men are wimpy!), and of course his English is not very good. = ) Actually, I think he can understand a lot, but is very shy to speak to me in English. I spoke with him in pigeon Korean. The three of us went to this nice restaurant that had been pre-arranged for Yonsei Day, and I ate dish upon dish of vegetables. Delicious. I feared that the lunch would be beyond awkward, but Soonchul managed to think of things to say to me, and I had a lot of questions really. We also talked about his fiancee, who is the past ETA of three years OMG scandaaaaaaaaaaaaal. (Except not really. He was not her co-teacher and the whole school know they were dating and it was no big deal. But still I think it's amusing.) I felt a
little bad for Kyojangnim, who probably felt a bit left out. Once we left Yonsei U. behind and began our four hour voyage together back to my placement, though, the man really started talking. In Korean, of course. I love his accent, though--I can't explain it, you would just have to hear it--so I didn't mind listening to Kyojangnim ramble on to Soonchul. Once we were out of Seoul, though, Kyojangnim fell asleep, and Soonchul tried talking to me in the backseat. I couldn't think of much to say, however, so instead I chose to feign falling asleep. In truth, I actually did fall asleep, and was only woken up by the sound of Kyojangnim yelling into his mobile phone. XD; Also, Soonchul's GPS (EVERY Korean car has GPS) was crazy and wouldn't stop beeping randomly--apparently it points out where the speed traps on the highway are. SERIOUSLY!

You'd think me being stuck in a car for 4+ hours with two Korean men who are about ten and thirty years older than me would be the most awkward thing in the world, but I think I was so giddy about getting to my placement that it didn't really bother me. We even stopped on the side of the road and had a snack at a rest stop together--walnut cakes for all of us (so so soooooo good--they're essentially tiny red bean rolls), and strawberry milk for Soonchul and Kyojangnim. (I know, it's ridiculously adorable. Grown men drinking strawberry milk. Oh, Korea.) At this point my host father was ringing Kyojangnim like crazy and asking, "What does she want to eat?????" Like hell I wanted to think about dinner, I was already eating my weight in walnut cakes! But I said that I wanted to eat fish, since I was going to a fishing port.

Okay, so a bit about my placement. I got assigned to Mokpo, which to most Koreans in the North is a hilarious place. It's mostly well-known for the fact that most of Korea's fish comes through Mokpo, and there's a film about Mokpo being the home of Korea's gangsters. Since most of you no doubt have no clue where Mokpo could be, here's a map!:



.......... Yep, right at the bottom of South Korea. XD It's very easy to get to Jeju Island from where Mokpo is (there's a ferry and everything) so I'll probably visit at some point. Before coming to Mokpo, I had done as much research as I could through the internet and the advice of past ETA's who lived there, but I still had really no clue what I would be getting. When we arrived in Mokpo, it was sadly already dark (about 8:30), so I couldn't make out the area that well. I did see a looooot of churches, though. (Mokpo is a quite religious area--goody. On the plus side, this means that the drinking culture at my school is not too bad and I will not be forced to drink like some ETA's are!)

Soonchul, who was driving Kyojangnim and I around, told me, "We're going to go by the school first." I though, Okay, why not. School is out for the week for Yongheung (the school I'm working at) students, so I thought they'd want me to see the school when it was empty. It was 8:30 pm, after all. But when we got to the school I actually saw few students walking around in uniforms! I asked, "Aren't they out for break?" Soonchul said yes, but that they come to school to study anyways! Some students study 9 am to midnight!

Soonchul was explaining how the walls build around the school were commemorative of the 100-year school history, when the car suddenly turned the corner and I saw two lines of students standing in front of the school. Okay, not two lines, two THRONGS of students. They started screaming and waving when they saw the car. And I realized that they were screaming for me. I tried to shrink into my seat, hide under something, but I knew there was no way of getting out of it. I was scrambling back into my high heels when someone opened the door for me. I don't know how female celebs are able to get out of cars gracefully in dresses, btw. The whole thing was so surreal. Students were screaming things like "yeppuda!" (pretty) and "sexy!" over and over, people were whipping out their mobiles and taking pictures of me.......... one of the male students handed me a beautiful bouquet of roses and said quietly in English, "Welcome to our school." I felt like some sort of strange queen, holding this huuuuge bouquet in one arm and waving with the other arm. It was really, really odd. I had been warned that I would get treated differently, but I wasn't expecting this. Still, I know that after a while, my students will get used to me and no longer be excited to see me (more like "Oh God, you again, teacher"). After a while Soonchul and Kyojangnim got back into the car and I followed suite, still feeling
dazed.

One good thing about this encounter is that it really got me even more psyched to begin teaching these students. However, I really don't want to let them down and give them boring lessons, either, so I feel a bit pressured. =\ I must try hard!!

After screaming "ottokke ottokke?!" ("WHY?!") at Kyojangnim and Soonchul for a bit--who both just chuckled at me--we drove to the restaurant where we would be eating with my host family and two other Yongheung teachers. I didn't share this past information, but I actually met my host brother at Camp Fulbright! I taught one of his classes and everything. The former ETA told me his name, and I was able to properly introduce myself before the camp ended. So coming to Mokpo, it was a relief to see him again. His father and mother were both very smiley and friendly with me from the get-go, so I felt instantly at ease with them. The group of us--eight in all--had a private room in the restaurant, where the waitresses gave us some free dishes, and we ate more seafood than I can possibly imagine. I ate raw fish of all sorts--one kind was the smelliest fish I have ever come across--raw octopus, raw beef, cooked beef and fish, etc. etc.......... it was all so good. Mokpo fish really is delicious. Jeolla-do (there is Southern Jeolla, where I live, and Northern Jeolla, the province above me) is where most of Korea's farms and fisheries and so on are, so we have the best, freshest food in the whole country! And it shows. All of the markets I have been by had amazing looking produce and fish. This is an exciting place to be for a foodie. =3

After dinner, I was taken to my new home! We live in a high-rise complex in the newer part of Mokpo, on the seventh floor. I have my own room, which after the dorm is absolutely HUGE, and even better--MY OWN BATHROOM. I haven't had a private bathroom or shower in weeks, I feel like a princess now. The whole apartment is very clean (pictures, soon!) and simply designed, just how I like it. The kitchen and living room are one big room, so it's easy for us to socialize together. My host parents--I call them Esther* and Samchon**--are also health freaks, so there is lots of fruits, vegetables, tea and so on stocked in the house. More or less, the house right now seems perfect for me! Anyways, the night I arrived, my parents sat me down and talked to me about how they want me to feel at home, tell them if I have any problems, etc. etc. My host mother's English is pretty good, but my host family's English is nonexistent, which is fine with me. Like with Kyojangnim, though, I feel bad since my brother--No Ah--Esther and I can talk amongst ourselves in English, while Samchon cannot. I must learn more Korean for Samchon. = (

Yesterday was my first real day in Mokpo; because Samchon was at work all day and Esther, too, had work from 2 pm until 7 pm, I rang up Soonchul with the phone the school had given me and asked him to show me around Mokpo. We hung out for about two and a half or three hours, and it wasn't as awkward as I feared it might be. I just was a bit paranoid that people thought I was his Russian escort lady or something. -_- It's not common for men and women to hang out together casually as friends, and even less so if the woman is WESTERN. We got a few stares, maybe because I'm taller than him, too. XD Still, I'm grateful to Soonchul for taking time out of his day to show me around Mokpo--we saw the new and the old town, the area near my school, which is actually a nice shopping/eating/etc. area, the "old" downtown, one of the many mini-mountains that is smack in the middle of Mokpo, and the fish market. Kamsahamnida (thanks), Soonchul!

Aside from that, I've been getting used to living with my host family. They are a little different from typical Korean families. Samchon is a civil engineer of important status, and he gets sent to various places to complete projects. Once he is done with the project, the family moves. They have lived in Daegu, Wonju, other Korean cities, Malaysia, and Cyprus, CA! (Despite this, Samchon's English is still not good. XD I think his family lived in CA longer than he did.) Right now their daughter, Su Ah, goes to uni in Malaysia. I really want to meet her, she sounds like a fun person. The whole family is very sweet and affectionate with each other, and they have a great dynamic which I'm happy to be included in. I'm sure they have bad days, but they seem to all love each other so much. Last night, after dinner, the four of us trekked to E-mart (think Walmart) together, to try to find me EXERCISE CLOTHES! Because apparently I cannot go hiking with them until I acquire real Korean exercise clothes. Last night we had no luck, maybe today we'll find some? They also dragged me around the food part of E-mart and bought me some things I wanted: vegetables, soy milk, bananas, cereal and bread....... I have to be careful that my host family doesn't try to spoil me! They haven't tried to overfeed me yet, though, which is a relief. (My host mum doesn't even think I'm super fat, just a little "full" in the stomach. XD Ahah. She's mainly fixated on my rib cage area, though, which cannot get smaller until I get a rib removed.)

Today I need to finish unpacking my luggage, start really lesson planning and not just brainstorming, and try to get Samchon to go walking with me! Last night I accidentally went w/out him--I should have waited for him to come home. ^^;;; And my little brother is taking me to see Dark Knight--he got super excited when I told him I had to see it. I suspect we will watch lots of films together, as he started asking me about the Mummy 3 and other films, too. But right now he's off being a player and hanging out with his female friends. *snort* He's a baaad Korean student, but that makes him more fun. I just have to be careful not to influence him too much with my delinquent American ways. His hard-studying/working parents will hate me if I sway him the wrong way.

So, this is a sufficient essay about my life story. -_-; If you made it to the end of this, congrats! You get a cookie, just not from me, since Korea has no cookies that are worth eating. You get a walnut cake instead! I know the last two entries have been very talkie-talkie, so I'm going to start uploading all my ridiculous photos from Chuncheon, DMZ (Girl Sam, I couldn't take many 'cos it's ILLEGAL and I didn't want to get shot -_-;), Seoul, Mokpo, etc. The next post will be allllllll photos and must easier on the brain. Even so, I hope someone enjoyed reading this post--I had a lot of fun writing it and reliving all the excitement of the past few days. I don't teach until Monday, which I am both excited and nervous about. I know, I know, I will do fine, but I really want the students to have an exciting semester with me. I have to think hard about what sort of lessons to teach them! I can't wait to meet them!

Signing off for now. ♥

*Esther is my host mum's Christian name.
**My host day doesn't go by his Christian name--maybe he doesn't have one--but instead chooses to be called "uncle," which is Samchon. In Korea, calling elders by their names is a little rude, so....... Samchon it is! =D

Adventures in North Korean Country;

So, I have to apologize. I have been really, really bad about updating this thing, despite my best intentions. I meant to update ages ago about my school placement information (which I will share in my next post!) but all of my news just piled up on top of each other and I didn't even know where to start.

So, instead I'm going to talk about today, which was quite........ eventful. = ) I ended up going to the DMZ*! (*short info session for anyone who does not know what DMZ means: DeMilitarized Zone. As I'm sure you all know, N. and S. Korea are still at war--stalemate, whatever--and the DMZ is the location of must of the fighting between the two sides during the Korean War. Today, the DMZ is a stretch of picturesque mountainous territory that both N. and S. Korea have ownership to. Here is more info if you want to know even more.)

Thanks to the generosity of the Hwacheon City Council (a town located about 45 minutes from where I am in Chuncheon), we were sponsored for our trip today and therefore didn't have to pay anything. = ) The perks of connections. Don't think we got an entirely free ride, though..... Upon boarding the bus at 9 am this morning, we were informed by one of our coordinators that we were expected to make an appearance at.......... the local Tomato festival, being held in the town next to Hwacheon. And we were supposed to meet the major. We laughed at hearing this, thinking, Whatever, Korea has festivals for everything, why the heck not.

So upon arriving at the Tomato Festival (and seeing the people dressed up in tomato costumes and so on), we were all handed official promo t-shirts. Once again, we though, Okay, free t-shirt, yay! We did as we were told--put on the shirts, get off the bus and wait over here--and were trying to avoid getting watergunned by the people in Halloween costumes (don't ask, I don't know either), when it turned out that we were being lined up to be in the festival parade.

So yes. Instead of just checking out the festival like we thought we were going to, we participated! I have now been in a tomato festival parade. It was really fun, actually. We made good friends with the guys in traditional Korean girls clothing (once again, I don't know), who were very smiley and not at all embarrassed to be seen wearing blush and lipstick in daylight. While marching in a parade. Oh, Korea. After being trotted around for a while (I have a feeling that I am going to be treated like a pet white monkey for the next year ^^;), we were given a stack of free tomatoes and sent on our way. The tomatoes were delicious, too--I never thought that eating them like an apple could be so yummy.

After that mini-adventure, it was off to the land of Serious Business, i.e. the DMZ. One cannot get into the DMZ without passing through about 3 military security points, so suffice to say I saw my fair share of soldiers today. DMZ land looks a lot like northern Gangwon-do in general, except there are less people and a lot more trees. With the exception of soldiers and one North Korean village, no one lives in the DMZ. There are an awful lot of minefields still hanging around, so it's far far too dangerous to walk through. Not to mention you'll just get gunned down anyways if you try to "go off the path." I'm sure this might sound a little intense, but given the natural beauty of the area (imagine the mountains without human civilization for 50+ years) and the supreme quiet that hangs over the DMZ, it actually seems more peaceful than most places I've been to in Korea thus far. Of course, that is not true at all, but it does make for an interesting place to visit.

When were in the DMZ, we were taken to a viewpoint lookout tower, where we could......... almost see into North Korea. I could make out North Korean territory, including the Star Peaked Mountains (called something else in Korean) that Kim Il Sung refused to ever succeed to S. Korea. The soldiers who worked at this lookout tower were younger than us and quite jovial overall--you wouldn't think that they live on the threshold of a possible war zone. Maybe they were just excited to meet so many dorky American tourists at once.

After all that excitement, it was nearly 3 pm and we still hadn't eaten yet (although with the extreme heat of today, I almost didn't want to), so we stopped for a Korean lunch of rice with side dishes, as per usual. The soup and the fish were very excellent, though. The best part about the meal was that they give us iced cinnamon tea at the end. So refreshing. We were supposed to originally go to the Peace Dam before heading back, but sadly we had no time--I suppose next trip I'll have to visit the dam S. Korea built to prevent N. Korea from trying to flood them. Happy times. (I love the use of "peace" in the name.)

I'm sure this entry is a bit wordy and dry without any pictures, but sadly it was tough to take pictures in the DMZ. You're really not supposed to. I'll post what few pictures I have soon, once I steal some ones of the Tomato festival, as well!

In other news, did anyone want the Olympic Opening Ceremony yesterday? One of the good things about living in Korea is that I'm only an hour ahead of China, so I got to watch the whole thing last night! We had to go to a bar, as our dorm has no television, but in a way, that made the experience even better--it was fun to ooh and aah at the spectacle along with the Koreans. We also ran into a Chinese girl who's currently living in Korea, and had her join in on our fun. She was so psyched, and her excitement was contagious for the rest of us. = ) I hope I get to watch some gymnastics soon!! My favourite part, obviously.

First lesson!;

Today was my first day "teaching" at the summer camp--I use quotes because I was only teaching one 45 minute class. It was still a busy day, though, as I had my own Korean language class all morning and then had to rush to the English language classroom to set up my computer (never thought I'd say this, but I used Powerpoint), and after that all I had time to do was run out to the shop to buy some kimbab (rice balls with kimchi meat wrapped in seaweed) and juice for lunch before the class. X_x

Anyways, since the class was doing an overarching theme of fairytales, I did a lesson on monsters. I'm not sure if they actually learned anything from it, tbh (you know how vocab goes in one ear and out the other), but as the class was 9 boys out of 12 students, they were pretty into the monster theme. As a starter, I showed pictures from D-Wars/World of Warcraft/The Host, which I knew they'd all recognize. And I got pretty much all of the kids to say at least one thing, which was my goal from the start. I thought I would be nervous as hell during the lesson but I really wasn't, actually. I didn't even feel like me really, I was 100% obsessed with monsters and slow-speed English for the whole lesson. It did learn a lot from this one experience, however, such as that I need to prepare even more in the future.

Today was intermediate English. Next week I teach advanced and beginner (beginner is a joint lesson). Good luck me!

In other news--never have I been so glad to own an umbrella. Monsoon season is definitely starting to kick off, and it's as if the heavens have opened and are falling in buckets of rain. This really explains why Korea is so green (and northern China is so dry by comparison). The whole week is supposed to be like this. Is it too early to start singing, "Rain, rain, go away...."?

Songnisan!;

Hi again! Sorry about the lack of regular updates, the last week has been a bit of a blur. This weekend we took a three day trip to Songnisan National Park, which is located in the middle of the country. It was a chance for us to relax and take in the nature et cetera et cetera. Dispute the typhoon warnings, I had a fabulous time.

I cannot textually convey just how amazingly pretty rural Korea can be, so instead: pictures!


Taken from the bus. Farmland! Maybe I'm just staying in an especially farm-y area, but it seems like every stretch of open land is being used to grow corn/rice/potatoes/apples/etc. I find it quite lovely; where I live in America has practically no farms.


On the bus. Like the purple fringe/doilies? Koreans like to decorate everything, it seems.


Lunch! This meal was amazing. We had over a dozen different side dishes, a communal soup (in Korea, almost everything is eaten communally), rice, fish...... it was all so much. I ate too much, but it was all so delicious. (Except for the mushrooms, ick. I really did try, but I still can't eat mushrooms!)


Kirstin and me, mid-meal. My legs were probably asleep at this point--sitting on the floor is hard (no pun intended).


A shot of our hotel room. 4 people to a room. "But were are the beds?" I hear you ask. Good question! We were staying in a traditional Korean-style room, which means that the guests just set up mattress pads on the floor to make their beds. The mattress pads and blankets are kept in a side closet during the day. It's not that bad, but I have to admit that I did miss my dorm bed a bit.


Inside the Songnisan forest, walking to the Buddhist temple. Korean forests are really something.


Drinking mountain spring water is supposed to be good for your health. It didn't taste all that special to me, but I was told that was because we were at the base of the mountain. The water tastes better the closer you are to the peak.


My, this isn't Chinese at all.


A closer shot of the same gate. It was was really beautiful, but it did remind me a lot of traditional Chinese architecture. I thought Korean architecture didn't use the same colour scheme? (i.e. lots of red.)


Korean! Nature! Oh I love it so! I went truly snap-happy while I was at Songnisan.


...... And that is one BIG Buddha. Seriously, I have been to many a Buddhist temple, but never have I seem a Buddha this impressive.


One of the pagodas(?)/temples in the Buddhist temple area.


Another shot of the pagoda. I thought the bells were an interesting touch.


Raisa and me in front of the temple/pagoda! And yes, skinny jeans in 90% humidity was totally comfortable.


Grace trying to teach me how to sel-ka (take a picture of oneself). I kind of failed. This is an important skill that I must acquire in Korea, or risk being a social outcast! XD


I was happy that I got this quick shot of the monks walking around the courtyard.


A beautiful little shrine. Inside is a golden Buddha statue.


While we were visiting the temple, the monks happened to be doing a special drum/bell-ringing service. I don't know, it was just really cool. The monks were pretty impressive drummers, too.


Much, much later that evening, a group of us found ourselves engaging in Songnisan's only social event: karaoke. (Known as noraebang here.) Karaoke in Asia means that each group gets a private room in which to embarrass themselves, complete with a disco ball!


A full shot of the whole noraebang private room.

The next day, we were given the whole day to ourselves to do whatever we wanted: hike, sleep, eat, etc. Most of us wanted to go hiking....... until we were informed of the typhoon warnings and were not allowed to go out on the trails. = ( I was very sad about that. But, made the most of it and wanted around the town, instead.


Pretty (man-made?) waterfall in the center of town. Almost every place around Songnisan was a photo-op.


This tree is famous! Apparently! That's why it's begin help up by all those wooden planks now. Apparently, legend goes, one of the past kings ordered that tree to be chopped down, but they were unable to do. (Don't ask me why. The tree was too resilient?) The king was so impressed by the tree's resilience that he made it a minister. This is almost as good as Caligula and his horse. You can't tell btw, but this picture was taken in the pouring rain. It was pretty miserable.


Caught in the pouring rain in South Korea. But at least it's still beautiful landscape!


Mist/steam? rising off the mountains after the rain finally stopped. It was pretty humid.


Even though it's in the middle of nowhere, Songnisan manages to have a fair amount of neon. The place really lights up at night--even though it's so quiet and almost no one else is around.


On the final morning, the sun came out--of course. I took a quick hike by myself, because that was all I had time for. I look forward to trying some real trails in the future, though. Korea's extremely mountainous and hiking is practically the national sport.

So what did I learn this weekend? 1) That rural Korea is really quite beautiful (I guess that shouldn't be a surprise, but if you've seen rural nothern China like I have.....); 2) a lot about Buddhism that I hadn't previously known, or even thought of; 3) that I can still karaoke to songs I haven't heard in years, such as......... the Bee Gees and 4) that I really, really, really had to buy an umbrella.

Pretty good weekend, all in all.

+++

In more recent news, it's summer camp time here! For the next two weeks, we're hosting an English summer camp for over 100 kids from all over South Korea. Most of the classes are taught by past English teachers, but we're teaching classes on our own, too. My first class is Thursday. Wish me......... luck. ^^;; According to someone who already taught them, my class is mostly apathetic, unresponsive boys. So it sounds like I have my work cut out for me. Yay! This weekend as well, we're hosting a bunch of games and competitions. Speaking of which, my group is meeting a few minutes to discuss that.....

PS: I accidentally ate intestine this weekend! As is often the case with Korean food, I had no idea what I was eating, but it wasn't too bad. = ) (Sometimes I can't even tell if I'm eating meat or vegetable. It makes for interesting meal times.)